FURTHER on the session scene in Manhattan, you would want to be aware of these developments also.

There has long been a trad music void on a Friday night in town since the old Blarney Star concert series ended at what was then the Biddy Early's Pub in lower Manhattan. So respected was the weekly series of trad music that no other musician wanted to host a session opposite that night around town, but almost two years have elapsed now and someone has finally stepped up to make sure that Fridays aren't the only night you couldn't find a session in the Big Apple.

Fiddler Tony Demarco took up the challenge to organize a session on the East Side at the Blackstone Pub (245 East 55th Street between Second and Third Avenues, 212/355-4474 or www.blackstonesbarnyc.com), which reopened last year under new management willing to give trad music a try and venue on a key weekend night. The music gets underway around 10 p.m. and the kitchen is open late for pub fare so it's worth a visit if you are rambling around late.

This coming Tuesday night, June 5 one of the finest Irish fiddlers to come out of California or of Taiwanese heritage, Dana Lyn will be a special guest at Dempsey's Pub (61 Second Avenue) in the East Village hangout which claims the city's longest running open session every week.

Now hosted by John Nevin and friends, it gets under way at 8 p.m. That ought to give Dana enough time to catch some sleep after her regular tour of duty at the very nocturnal Monday night session at Mona's, where her participation has often given people a reason to forego sleep at that East Village all-night session on Mondays.

Another Tuesday session has come into the fray up on the West Side at the Mean Fiddler (266 West 47th Street, 212-354-2950) in the theater district where Niall O'Leary, the dancing musician and Niall Mulligan hold forth starting at 10 p.m. on the night of the early curtain rise (7 p.m. at most theaters).